Girls' Night In
by CuttlestheFish
Summary: Jessica Drew spots a familiar figure jumping from rooftop to rooftop, goes to investigate, and ends up learning more about one of her fellow heroes than she thought she knew.


Hello lovelies, so here's my first attempt at doing a fic involving my two favorite Spider-Ladies, Jessica Drew and Anya Corazon. I know it might seem as such, but I'm aware that Jessica isn't much of a kid-person. I can imagine her relationship with Anya is an unbalanced mix between "mother/daughter" and "coworker", so she keeps teetering between the two modes. Can we have more comics with these two going solo and hanging together, Marvel? Anyway, onto the show, enjoy!

 **Girls' Night In**

The first order of business for Jessica was to tear off her outfit, toss it in the closet, and put on her ugliest (but softest) pajamas. They were a gift from Carol, so of course they were obnoxiously bright and covered in little martini glasses, but she didn't care about that. She did a few routine yoga stretches to work the kinks out of her joints and let her body relax, then moseyed herself over to her kitchen. She sighed when she opened the fridge to find mostly expired or old containers, she kind of spoiled herself by crashing at Stark Tower for so long. She made a mental note to go grocery shopping when she had some free time as she checked the date on a yogurt cup, thank god it was still good. She made her way over to the little sitting area in her tiny apartment and began to enjoy her midnight snack.

She flipped on the TV and browsed what stations would be playing at this hour, mostly news stories concerning today's little... mishap... she made another note to not make any more bets with Logan while in the middle of a job. Her eyes traveled from the news story and to the window overlooking New York's night sky, it was a force of habit to be looking for activity but something about that familiar skyline and all its towers gave her a sense of calmness... She propped her legs up on the couch began to really let herself sink into the cushion until her eyes, sadly, caught something suspicious. She sat up straight and squinted, there was a figure running along the rooftops and jumping dangerously close to the edges. She set the yogurt cup down on the coffee table and walked over to the window. She studied the figure's running gait, was it Peter? No, the frame was much smaller, that Miles kid? Well, smaller, but not THAT small. It couldn't have been Natasha either, this figure was much more clumsy and didn't seem to calculate their steps. She followed the figure with her eyes and considered, regretfully, suiting up and following out of caution until the figure slowed to a jog, then a halt, and sat down. Jessica raised an eyebrow, was it a kid doing parkour to get home? In this city she wouldn't be surprised.

She waited a bit to see if the figure would make their way to a stairwell or fire escape, but the figure only sat on the railing of the roof, they seemed to be hunched over. Was it exhaustion? Was it sadness? Jessica's eyebrows came together when that particular thought snaked its way into her head. She didn't give it a second thought, she flipped the TV off, put the yogurt cup in the fridge, and pulled her outfit back on. In a flash she was out of her apartment via the window and was climbing around the windows of her neighbors to the roof. She shot out a web stream and swung across the street. She didn't approach the figure directly, she was only out to observe, if the civilian was only tired or at somewhat controllable levels of sadness then she would make her way back home and leave them to fix their own problems. But if it was a more serious situation, she would take action. Jessica spider-crawled around to the other side of the building, the lighting from a neighboring rooftop lamp gave the perfect shadow cover to conceal her head when she peeked over the railing. What she saw made her blink a few times.

"Kid?" She asked, crawling over the railing. The figure jumped. That particular suit was easy to pick out among the others. It was the familiar back and white of Spider-Girl. The teen jumped from her hunched over position and got to her feet.

"W-Wha-Jess?" Anya chirped, she rubbed a hand against her face before tugging her mask over it again. "I thought you went home for the night." Jessica crossed her arms and walked towards the teen.

"Well, I kinda saw you jumping around and... I thought you might have been someone else." She put her hands up. "Sorry about busting in on you like that." Jess blushed a little under her red mask, of course it would be Anya, Steve and Tony recently gave her a night-watch duty. "I didn't mean to catch you off guard like that."

"No, no you're fine!" Anya grew flustered. "You were just doing your thing, no need to apologize! I was-uh-I was just catching my breath." Anya sniffed and tried to put up a smile. Jessica raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"Um, Anya, is there something you need to talk about?" The highschooler blinked a few times and scratched the back of her neck.

"I-uh-no, nothing, I'm good." The girl crossed her arms and stood straight, a half-smile on her face. Jessica knew that look, no way was she buying that, and Anya could tell.

"Kid, if something is bothering you, then it's going to interfere with your work. Trust me on this, I've seen it and experienced it." Jessica hated how her voice sounded whenever she gave a lecture like this to one of the minors running around in costume. She sounded WAY too close to Steve or Tony whenever it happened, and they had a habit of talking down to people and making them feel low. She bit the inside of her lip when she saw Spider-Girl's shoulders slump. "Hey, don't take it that way." Jessica put her hands up again. "Um, please? Ugh..." Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose, why did she have to be so bad at talking to kids? And after today's big event? Spider-Girl put her hands up this time.

"No, it's okay, I bothered you while you were off-duty! I'm just, a little tired, yeah, I'm fine!" Something in Jessica clicked and she shot a look at the girl. Anya tensed up, she let her arms drop to her sides again. "I... have a lot on my mind right now. It's kind of personal." Jessica tilted her head.

"Anything I can do to help?" The girl blinked a few times, Jess did the same, was the kid that shocked to be offered help? Anya noticed the awkward silence and shook her head.

"Um, I-I need to finish my shift..." Her eyes trailed to the ground, Jessica took a step closer, her eyes squinting in the dim light. Had the girl been crying? Anya seemed to take notice and took a step back. "I-um-I'll be alright, I swear!"

"Kid... are you SURE you don't want to talk about anything? I... I'm here if you need anything." Jessica took a step back, realizing she got too close, and took her mask off. Anya's eyes widened, at least Jess could tell under her mask. "We're still people, and we look out for each other. I know... I know I'm not Carol but..." Jessica mentally kicked herself, dammit, this is why she hated talking to the kids, she stepped on the wrong cracks. She looked back to Anya, who took her own mask off, revealing eyes that were puffy and red. "Hey, kid..." Jess started, Anya stepped forward.

"It's... my dad... it's been two years since... and I thought I would be getting over it but... it just hit me today while I was starting night duty and..." The girl couldn't finish her sentence, a tiny sob escaped her throat in its place. She placed a hand over her mouth as new tears began running down her face. Jessica felt a heavy weight drop in her stomach, she knew from casual talk around Stark Tower that the girl lived on her own but she always brushed it off and assumed it was because of a long commute or something. Her arms flinched at first, but then she extended them over the girl's shoulders and pulled her into a gentle hug. With gentle hands, she rubbed the girl's back and let her finally cry. After a few minutes the two pulled away, Anya rubbed her face and pulled her mask back on. "I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, that was really-"

"Hey-hey," Jessica grabbed her by the shoulder "what did I say? We're people, we look out for each other. I'm... I'm really sorry what happened to your dad, and I'm really sorry that you..." Jessica ground her teeth, dammit, she was going to put her foot in her mouth again. "Well, my point is that you don't have to feel alone, you can always come to me if you need anything. And you should never apologize for grieving, you hear me?" Anya looked back to the ground, Jessica coaxed her to look her in the eye. "Grieving is a very long, and very painful experience, for a lot of people it takes decades, okay? It hurts, I understand that, and if you need anyone to talk to... well, you know where I am." Anya gave Jessica a confused look, Jessica nodded to the building across the street, the two turned. She pointed a gloved hand. "See that window? The one with the purple curtains? That's my apartment, room 15D, you need to stay at somebody's place because you don't want to be alone for the night? All you need to do is knock, okay?" Anya's jaw dropped, was THE Spider-Woman giving out this kind of information at the drop of a hat? Just for her?

"I-I don't know what to say, Sp-" Jessica put a hand up to silence the girl.

"Just promise me that you'll come to me if you need to talk, the city relies on us and we need to take care of each other. Besides, I need a reason to spruce up the place once in a while." Anya gave a meek smile.

"I... I end my shift at midnight..." Jessica smirked.

"I can make a run down to the corner store and buy a bunch of nacho ingredients." Anya gave a half-smirk.

"I have the entire Darkwing Duck series on DVD."

"I have never seen that show, but it sounds amazing." Jessica extended a hand, Anya shook it and the two parted. Jessica's mind was a tangle of questions by the time she re-entered her apartment, the biggest one being 'why?'. She shrugged off her suit for the second time and pulled on a pair of jeans and one of her old blouses. She got a look at herself in the mirror, a woman seemingly in her early 30's who was going out to get probably $30 worth of overpriced nachos. Huh, why did that seem so enticing? She looked back at her suit and smirked. It didn't hurt to kick back once in a while, at least on her own terms. She thought about Spider-Girl and looked out the window, she sighed, why some people thought that this career was so enticing she'll never know. She slipped on a pair of old flip-flops and headed out the door, while it was a job she was born into, it didn't matter. For now, she was just excited to dig into some fattening chips with some company that equally needed it.


End file.
